2010 soccer event

[+Louise_Gerhard]

The following should be of some interest to cachers in Gauteng and North West. The figures were obtained from Beeld, 24 November 2008 and it is concerning the 2010 world cup. They estimate that on day 1 to 3 about 190 000 foreign visitors will be in South Africa. About 19 000 people will arrive per day in South Africa. They predict that it could go to a peak of 30 000 visitors per day. Day 14 will be the most active period. Prediction is that about 160 000 people will be traveling on day 14. About 90% of the travelers will be men and the majority will have a high education level. About 45% of their free time will be spent in taverns and about 23% will be visiting places. About 15 of the 64 matches will take place in Johannesburg and 6 in Pretoria. Rustenburg will only share in the first 11 days and Polokwane in the first 12 days. Ok, maybe there is someone that is now saying the following “Huh, How do this tie in with geocaching?”

 

It is very difficult to estimate how many cachers will be in this group. One thing is clear in my mind. The number of cache visits will increase in Gauteng and Rustenburg area. How much is the problem. If you can keep your caches well maintained you should be awarded with an increase in cache visits. Luckily the caches in the Rustenburg area were increased. Maybe someone had a vision.

 

Is there any way possible that we can measure the possible cachers that will be hunting for caches? Maybe we should drop a topic in the other forums to probe if any cachers are coming along. If I look at the previous soccer event then I can see an increase but to sit down and quantify the probability will be a nightmare. One thing that is critical is that caches will need to be maintained and owners should take care of them. It will not be good for us if some of the cachers from overseas starts to arrive just to find that caches are bad or not there. I think we should show the guys from oversea how we do it. We should keep a high standard and we must leave a good impression on these guys. This is only my personal opinion. To me it will be interesting to see if the cache hits increase in Gauteng and Rustenburg area and how much more. Maybe cachers are not soccer fanatics. Maybe there will be no significant increase in cache visits. Maybe only 10 will arrive. Time will tell. Will they visit the caches in Soweto? Time will tell. Will they climb the hills in Gauteng or will they do the quick ones next to the hotel? Time will tell.

 

In South Africa about 0.0011% of the population is cachers. If you assume the same relationship then only two cachers will arrive in the first 3 days among the 190 000 visitors. But only 23% will be visiting places. Eish, only a half of a cacher will be visiting a cache. In real terms there could be a cacher on day 6 visiting some caches. So much for the increase. Any comments?

 

Gerhard

[cache-fan]

There will certainly an increase in cache visits during the FIFA World Cup 2010, but I would leave it to statistics who ever can provide the estimate to the extend. I was "lucky" to be in Berlin in 2006 during the semi finals and prefered caching with some local Geocachers over soccer over hanging out at the Fan-Mile.

 

To me, Geocachers are not too involved in Soccer, even if from Europe. I fully agree that we have to maintain our caches during the event, just to show that South Africa can provide quality time for visitors on holiday. So lets have an combined effort to clean up our caches before and maintain during the event.

 

Maybe we can re-activate our WC2010 cache serie?

[+GlobalRat]

 

Maybe we can re-activate our WC2010 cache serie?

 

I've been reconsidering activating mine. Sadly it would have to be a Nano as there just is too much going on in the area. But then again, the cache was more about the photo log to record progress of the stadiums.

[+Fish Eagle]

 

Maybe we can re-activate our WC2010 cache serie?

 

I've been reconsidering activating mine. Sadly it would have to be a Nano as there just is too much going on in the area. But then again, the cache was more about the photo log to record progress of the stadiums.

Yep, also been thinking of re-activating ours. Gonna see what everyone else does.....

[+Louise_Gerhard]

I think the photo records of the stadium is a good one. My personal opinion is that it could add value. At present a lot of progress should be evident. Gerhard

[+DamhuisClan]

It should be relatively easy to quantify how many people would visit caches during the soccer world cup, by going to the previous location.

 

My suggested method would be:

1) Create PQ's of the areas around the soccer stadiums.

2) Run AddLogs GSAK Macro to get all the logs.

3) Create a SQL statement (which runs vie GSAK SQLConsole), defining all cache counts into 2 week (or 1 week) periods.

4) The results would show if the cache find count have increased during the previous soccer world cup period.

 

Should someone pursue this, I am willing to help with the SQL query (I am getting pretty good with this.

Edited November 27, 2008 by DamhuisClan

[+Louise_Gerhard]

I visit Midrand today for business. I had two meetings and I selected 3 caches for a quick visit. Guess what - I found not one of the three. The location was good and safe and full of security. So much that at each cache was a security guard or muggle present. I got out of the vehicle and the security immediately came to me asking me if they could help me. Ok, it is good to see that they are active – no reason for bitching. I could not help to smile a little bit. This was bad luck – a real stinker but this is how the cookie crumbles. If caching was smooth sailing all the way it could become a bore.

 

While I was driving home battling with the traffic I watch the ambulance service trying to get pass – they had a real battle. It took me about 2.5 hours back to my friend in the South of Pretoria. The drive from Pretoria to Ermelo is about 2.5 hours.

 

If I look at all these circumstances that I encountered today then we should measure if there is an increase in cache visits and we have to quantify it somehow. I think this will be very interesting to see the effect. I just hope they can get through the traffic and pass the muggles. I agree with the log above.

 

Maybe we must appoint a 2010 cacher mentor/guardian/host for the Gauteng area – something like “If you are stuck or you need help/advice please phone the following number. Or something like a web page somewhere that is explaining “Caching in Gauteng”. I am now going to touch a sensitive subject and maybe I will get burned for this - but maybe we need a bookmark listing of approved caches such as “2010 approved caches”. The approved caches can have a link to this webpage explaining “Caching in Gauteng”. Maybe this is just a wild idea.

 

If you have the new maps and you choose the shortest route the GPS will give you a short cut right through Alexander. This could be a health hazard. Foreigner does not know the difference. They will probably notice that there are caches in Soweto as well. Maybe they will visit. Am I too energetic??? Gerhard

[+DamhuisClan]

Ok, I am interested in this.

 

I am sure BlackJack Bailey, with his Historical Database, will be able to supply the stats for the South African regions, once we get to the Woldcup in 570 days time. BlackJack are you in?

 

I am happy to look at the previous Worldcup, and take one stadium, with it's surounding caches.

 

Any takers for any stadiums?

 

What is the distance around the stadium that we look at? 20km or 30 km?

[+DamhuisClan]

I have been toying with the idea of a geocoin series for South Africa.

 

1) The idea is to have a coin (roughly) in the shape of each province.

 

2) The front would depict something specific to that province.

Example: Gauteng - Mine lift. Free state - Mielies? Mpumulanga - sun (or KNP) or both?

Westerncape - Table Mountain

 

3) Maybe display all the cities where a soccer match is played as a small soccer ball. All other main cities just as a dot.

 

3) Each province its own colour (Not sure what colours to use)

 

4) When all coins are brought together, it forms the shape of South Africa.

This means Gauteng would be a micro coin, and Western Cape quite a large coin.

 

5) I am thinking all tracking numbers on the back, and the South African flag is then displayed on the back (with all the coins together) with some message like "Soccer 2010" or "Alive with Possibility" (Is that trade marked?) or something similar.

 

I think this would be an amazing series to keep, and to send out into the world.

 

Are there cachers interesting in joining up on such a project, and to sponsor a province?

I don't even know what it would cost, and if it is actually worth it, but that can be investigated if cachers are interested. I think a good starting point would be to see if there are people interested in "sponsoring" each province. And then we go from there.

[+GlobalRat]

I have been toying with the idea of a geocoin series for South Africa.

 

 

Have pondered this before too especially after seeing the US one, and therefore think it is a great idea

 

If memory serves, it was in 4 pieces and each was in the region of 10-15 US$.

 

4) When all coins are brought together, it forms the shape of South Africa.

This means Gauteng would be a micro coin, and Western Cape quite a large coin.

 

Think you mean Northern Cape

 

Some practicalities around the coin. To make 9 coins, and have GP a feasible size then the combined coin would probably need to be in the region of 20cm x 18cm. I have no objection to something like this, would be fantastic, but it would be costly.

 

 

It will probably be more cost effective and practical to group provinces together, something (as a suggestion)like this

 

 

Colours just indicate grouping. Would be easier to manufacture, and cheaper for folks to buy a set.

[+DamhuisClan]

Yep I agree it would be costly.

 

But hopefully we can get 9 People interested, to be sponsors for a province. If more people are interested, two people could put money together, and thus share costs. If there is a huge amount of interest, then we could maybe look at a Southern African map. And thus include Swaziland, and Lesotho.

 

But wouldn't it be amazing to get a bunch coins that is 20x20 cm map?

 

All just ideas, at this point.....

[+Blackjack Bailey]

I am sure BlackJack Bailey, with his Historical Database, will be able to supply the stats for the South African regions, once we get to the Woldcup in 570 days time. BlackJack are you in?

 

Gosh, I've only just read this thread - sorry if you thought I was ignoring you!

 

What info were you thinking of - the number of cache finds per province? If so, here they are:

 

Eastern Cape - 4,257 (5.44%)

Free State - 2,097 (2.68%)

Gauteng - 25,334 (32.40%)

KZN - 8,224 (10.52%)

Limpopo - 3,179 (4.07%)

Mpumalanga - 8,268 (10.57%)

North West - 2,778 (3.55%)

Northern Cape - 536 (0.69%)

Western Cape - 23,508 (30.07%)

 

Total - 78,185 (100.00%)